ITT Schaub Lorenz Germanium output stage, not amplifying..

GroupDIY Audio Forum

Help Support GroupDIY Audio Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Disco Volante

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 20, 2021
Messages
388
Location
Malmö, Southern Sweden
Will someone take a look at this little old Germanium output stage?
Got it as non-functional. Should have tried it first, measured, I realize now.
Anyway, the thing got a full recap (all are reversed, positive ground here). Found a broken trace (volume pot lead) and a botched volume pot.
Sound is very low and distorted. Thought it would be a really weird and very portable guitar amp if it would work... And the rest of the machine does FM and AM too!

Injecting about 18mV sine wave into point 315 (right after the vol. pot) gives me just about twice that on the output (4R7 3W dummy load), and that's it.
Any more than that gives me a nice rounded, asymmetric Germanium clipping..
There's about 50mV DC on the output (which I guess makes sense given the strange feedback arrangement?)
All voltages within range, 5V between the output transistors, 9V supply, 0.7V across D371. The variable R between the bases of the outputs is mounted on the heatsink.
Removed all of *four* transistors, they all check out OK on my cheapo transistor-tester.

I guess that leaves checking all resistors and finally the remaining caps for possible leakage/drift? Or am I missing something obvious?
What is the purpose of R335 (270R)?

Thanks, V!
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot from 2025-01-04 20-25-16.png
    Screenshot from 2025-01-04 20-25-16.png
    331.8 KB
  • IMG_20250106_202915_8.jpg
    IMG_20250106_202915_8.jpg
    4.8 MB
  • IMG_20250106_202829_6.jpg
    IMG_20250106_202829_6.jpg
    5.1 MB
  • IMG_20250106_202656_1.jpg
    IMG_20250106_202656_1.jpg
    4.8 MB

Latest posts

Back
Top